From a seat in the rear of the room, observe your students and take notes on what they are doing while the teacher is presenting in the front of the room, while they are supposed to be taking notes, doing seatwork, and/or when they are working in the lab. Look closely at each student for a range of behaviors, and resist the temptation on only see what you expect. Note especially what is happening furthest from the teacher.
What strategies are used by your CT to encourage students to attend and engage? Watch carefully how your CT moves around the room. Draw a map of the classroom and sketch a path showing (approximately) this movement.
How important is student engagement to your view of how you will teach? What strategies will you employ to encourage student engagement? How will use your proximity to provide feedback and manage student behavior?
Mr Zabel's two Biology I classes I observed vary greatly from each other. It seems as though all of the quiet students got grouped together in a small classroom during second period. His last period class is his larger class with over half the class being as my high school teacher labeled me, motor mouths. The day I visited he introduced acids and bases and expected the class to read about them for homework and then they would do a lab. His first class all listened intently while he went over the notes on the board. Some took additional notes on the notes they took for homework, filling in the parts they missed, while others just wrote down what they were told to do. There was little talking and goofing off. Last period was a whole different environment. The class size was large and he had already separated a few students giving them assigned seats. While he went over the notes there were many people talking, some complained about how he didn't check the homework because they did it, and others were complaining they already learned this form the homework. He had them make a table. When he did this his first period class didn't bat and eye, however in this class one student decided he needed a ruler, which progressed into every one needed a ruler.
When Mr. Zabel teaches he sits at the front of the classroom so he can control the computer. He doesn't walk around unless the notes do not need to be moved. The classroom is in rows and he walks the outside square. When it was time to do the lab he had them move from their desks to lab benches on the outside of the room. While working on the lab both Mr. Zabel and I floated from bench to bench. He sat with each bench at least twice, always making sure they were on task.
Because I can't sit and take notes for an entire hour without talking or questions, as seen in college classes, it is very important to my teaching that student be engaged. Whether it be questions to get them thinking or putting them in small groups. I used to hate group work but now I see how my ideas grow from working with a group and having the ability to bounce ideas off each other generating new ones. I prefer a modified KWL chart where the students work as a group to list when they know about a particular topic and what they want to learn or have questions about. This gets the students talking about the topic and it allows me to know what I really need to focus on in the lesson. However, with group works comes the ability for students to get off topics very quick. In college, I still do it. It makes me aware that the teacher must constantly be walking around and aware of which groups aren't using the time to work on the assignment. I know that the second a teacher is behind me I need to stop talking about whatever it is that I am and get back on topic. I've been in classrooms where teachers left us to group work and sat at the front of the room which let me talk to my groupmates about whatever I wanted. For group work to do its job a teacher must constantly be moving from group to group, and as much as I hated it being done to me, calling out those students that keep talking.
What strategies are used by your CT to encourage students to attend and engage? Watch carefully how your CT moves around the room. Draw a map of the classroom and sketch a path showing (approximately) this movement.
How important is student engagement to your view of how you will teach? What strategies will you employ to encourage student engagement? How will use your proximity to provide feedback and manage student behavior?
Mr Zabel's two Biology I classes I observed vary greatly from each other. It seems as though all of the quiet students got grouped together in a small classroom during second period. His last period class is his larger class with over half the class being as my high school teacher labeled me, motor mouths. The day I visited he introduced acids and bases and expected the class to read about them for homework and then they would do a lab. His first class all listened intently while he went over the notes on the board. Some took additional notes on the notes they took for homework, filling in the parts they missed, while others just wrote down what they were told to do. There was little talking and goofing off. Last period was a whole different environment. The class size was large and he had already separated a few students giving them assigned seats. While he went over the notes there were many people talking, some complained about how he didn't check the homework because they did it, and others were complaining they already learned this form the homework. He had them make a table. When he did this his first period class didn't bat and eye, however in this class one student decided he needed a ruler, which progressed into every one needed a ruler.
When Mr. Zabel teaches he sits at the front of the classroom so he can control the computer. He doesn't walk around unless the notes do not need to be moved. The classroom is in rows and he walks the outside square. When it was time to do the lab he had them move from their desks to lab benches on the outside of the room. While working on the lab both Mr. Zabel and I floated from bench to bench. He sat with each bench at least twice, always making sure they were on task.
Because I can't sit and take notes for an entire hour without talking or questions, as seen in college classes, it is very important to my teaching that student be engaged. Whether it be questions to get them thinking or putting them in small groups. I used to hate group work but now I see how my ideas grow from working with a group and having the ability to bounce ideas off each other generating new ones. I prefer a modified KWL chart where the students work as a group to list when they know about a particular topic and what they want to learn or have questions about. This gets the students talking about the topic and it allows me to know what I really need to focus on in the lesson. However, with group works comes the ability for students to get off topics very quick. In college, I still do it. It makes me aware that the teacher must constantly be walking around and aware of which groups aren't using the time to work on the assignment. I know that the second a teacher is behind me I need to stop talking about whatever it is that I am and get back on topic. I've been in classrooms where teachers left us to group work and sat at the front of the room which let me talk to my groupmates about whatever I wanted. For group work to do its job a teacher must constantly be moving from group to group, and as much as I hated it being done to me, calling out those students that keep talking.